Education journalists honoured at CIPR Awards

Journalists, public relations professionals and senior representatives from the education and skills sector gathered at the House of Commons last night for the eighth Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Education Journalism Awards. The awards celebrated the best education and skills reporting of the academic year 2011-12 and were sponsored by the CfBT Education Trust.

The event, sponsored by Graham Stuart MP Chair of the House of Commons education select committee, was organised and hosted by the CIPR Education and Skills Group, a professional network of over 300 public relations and communications professionals working across the UK education and skills sector.

Following a keynote address from Professor Sir David Melville CBE, Chair of Pearson Education, prizes were presented to winners, including William Stewart of the TES, who picked up the award for outstanding education reporting for national journalists, and Dorothy Lepkowska, who went home with the Ted Wragg Award for sustained contribution to education journalism.

The evening closed with a tribute to Mike Baker, the Ted Wragg Award winner for 2006, who sadly passed away during 2012.

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These, the eighth Education Journalism Awards, are now accepted within the field as the most prestigious of their type and are increasingly keenly contested. This year we have honoured many well-known and experienced professionals from across the press, broadcasting and social media - and, for the first time, recognised two newcomers to education journalism who I am sure will have many successful years ahead of them.

Louise Jaggs, CIPR Education & Skills Group Chair

I am delighted that, once again, CfBT is able to support the Education Journalist of the Year Awards. I strongly believe we are fortunate to have enquiring and challenging media that question policy and practice and seek to uncover alternative and innovative solutions to education issues in this country and elsewhere. For an organisation like CfBT, founded on evidence-based best practice, this is hugely important and I am proud that our portfolio of research and evidence for education – both practice and policy – supports the UK's education media in their work.

Tony McAleavy, Education Director at CfBT Education Trust

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The full list of 2013 CIPR Education Journalism Award winners is as follows:

Award for outstanding school journalism, sponsored by Communications Management
Winner: David Marley, TES

The Ted Wragg Award for sustained contribution to education journalism, sponsored by the Institute of Education, University of London.
Winner: Dorothy Lepkowska

Award for outstanding education reporting for national journalists, sponsored by the University of Nottingham
Winner: William Stewart, TES